Candide

I obviously forgot to take a pic. This is the presbytery they are in.

Candide is one of the new restos in Griffintown. You know, where there's a new restaurant every freaking week? On top of it, the maître d' is my brothers' cousin (it's complicated)! Oh, on top of that, Candide is located pretty much right smack in front of my restaurant. Hello!

Since it was going to be a nice, pricey meal(a pricey meal for me is over 30$!!), I wanted to share it with aaaalll my friends! No, not all 300 of them (hehehe), a select few. So there we went, E, Jer, Em, Cam, Bridgert and I, off to one of the hottest new restaurants in town (http://www.ledevoir.com/plaisirs/restaurants/457605/candide-au-presbytere)!

I was obviously the first one to get there (I'm ALWAYS the first one... it's like a rule written in a book somewhere or sumthin', I swear to Heysus!) and Valérie welcomed me with a huge smile and took my jacket and my scarf...and my mittens... and my tuque. Needless to say it was a cold, snowy kind of day!

Candide, with its downright homey feel and low lighting, makes you feel very comfortable and at home as soon as you walk in. Wooden tables with marble ends and green leather padded seats kind of gives out a cottage-y feel. I loved it. Some nice jazz oldies were playing¸ and that totally completed the ambiance for me. The place itself is quite hard to find (I had to send my fellow dining guests a map), with it not being on an actual street and all. In their defense, there IS a sign tied to a tree on Notre-Dame....

Candide offers a 4 course meal for 43$, with two entrées, your choice of main and your choice of dessert. QUITE the deal if I may say so myself! I would have loved it if the waiter would've suggested a wine pairing for every course (I believe they do that now...) but we settled on buying some bottles for the table. It's cuisine is kind of wood-sy, let's walk in the forest, eat something we don't usually eat kind of cuisine. I despise always seeing the same thing on menus (beets and goat cheese is so passé!) so this was a breath of fresh air. A plus is that they change it every season (and a bit in between). They put stuff on the menu we had never even heard of! That's eight points right there. Why eight? Cause it's MY blog :)

Let's talk food, shall we?

First entrée: wild arugula, buttermilk and sweet potato. The arugula was oh-so-fresh and crunchy; nothing like the arugula I buy at Super C and curse at when it goes bad 2 days later. The buttermilk sauce was lovely and a tad bitter and thick and so delightful that when I saw bread approach the table (I'm imagining floating bread here...), I dipped it as quickly as I could. The potatoes were nicely cooked but the skin was a bit thick and annoying to chew.

Second entrée: squash, rye and parasol mushroom (again, I'm imagining floating parasols--what is wrong with me?). Now this was definitely like eating in the woods... OR eating THE woods? Hehehe. The rye was a bit too hard for my liking and for my stupid stupid brittle teeth. The mushrooms were soft and although you would argue that they did just taste like a mushroom (ok, people that hardly know mushrooms would say this), they had a special taste, just like enoki or oyster mushrooms do. It was basically like I'd just picked them out of a clearing (you know, like a deer would!). The squash was cooked to perfection and became almost buttery. Mmmm, I want some now. NOW! Ok, imma gonna calm down.

Main: pheasant with Blue Jay beans and red cabbage. It kind of felt like a deconstructed cassoulet. For the record, the plating didn't do it for me: everything in a tiny corner of a huge plate, the cabbage on top of the meat. I actually thought for a moment that they were going to come back and put a bowl or something in that empty space on my plate.

Although the pheasant was nice and juicy, it lacked in taste. One would even go as far as saying that the pheasant wasn't too pleasant. Hahaha. I can totally picture Dr. Evil telling that joke. You know, with the little finger? Aaaand I'm officially off track. The level of doneness was absolutely perfect and the lovely juices were there, it just, in my opinion, didn't taste like much. Perhaps it lacked salt, who knows. The cabbage was cooked to vegetable perfection: not too crunchy, not too soft, just right. Boucle d'or, sors de ce corps! On top of it, it tasted somewhat smoky, which is a flavor I absolutely love. The beans were very tasty and added a certain texture to the dish. And by the way, it looks like Blue Jay beans are pretty darn hard to come by. Either that or the internet lied to me. I really do hate it when it does that.

Second main: clams, leeks and celeriac.The clams, although few and far between, were salty and briny and all that kind of salt water goodness. The celeriac, was surprisingly cooked whole (I usually see it in mashed form or cut julienne style). That and the leeks together was a great mix of flavours. One I would like to get again soon. Or, you know, right about NOW.

Dessert: Angelica cake, honey and scotch lovage. Such a nice, peaceful description, no? Angels and love! Hihihi! The cake was oh-so-moist and the honey added the sweetness that I needed after such a meal. The scotch lovage seemed fried but I think it was crisped using another method. I gotta say though, and please don't get me wrong because I used to l-o-v-e it, but the whole dish tasted like pot. As in marijuana. Seriously, I was burping pot for at least a couple hours after and it was weirdly lovely. But apart from being illegal, this dessert was sweet, fluffy, and again, kind of like I was in the woods! I swear, I'm sure if I had turned around at that moment, I would have seen Little Red Riding Hood! SEE what pot desserts do to me? Sheesh!

Second dessert: Pikauba, kale and sorb. Pikauba is a semi-soft cheese straight from Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean aged 3 or 4 months. It's so creamy, it almost melted in my mouth. I swear! And the sorb, which resembles huckleberry, was awesome and such a great pairing with the cheese. The kale was a great addition on their part and went perfectly with the whole dish.

Service was wonderful: our waiter explained every little detail and knew all the wines by heart (there were many) and talked about the menu in great length. Our water glasses were always full and the wine service was done the ITHQ way. You know; you make the person that is ordering the wine taste first and then if she/he says it's ok, you serve everyone else and you top of his/her glass last. The waiter was very upbeat and made it seem like we were the only ones in there (by a certain point, the restaurant had somewhat filled up). You could see he was passionate about what he was doing. So was the maitre d' Val. Their hearts belonged in that restaurant, as corny as that sounds.

Here are some opinions from my friends that came along...Some were actually scared at first because the portions were so small but after the meal, you could see they were mostly full. One of them was not at all pleased when she tasted both desserts one right after the other and thought it was 'disgusting'. I did the same thing and it was just fine. I loved the attention to details: how to place a fruit in a dish or a perhaps a leaf. Presentation was very 'soignée'.

Here is an elaborate opinion from my fellow student at ITHQ (which obviously means her opinion matters most, hahaha!): 'I think that it is not a restaurant for everyone. The lack of flexibility in the menu, the price, the ingredients; it felt like a tiny food adventure, and you have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone i think to really enjoy it. Though nothing blew me away, I  think all the food was well presented, well executed and thoughtful. It might be because I'm a spoiled child who goes to too many restaurants (if that is even a possible thing) but I enjoy not knowing about everything on the menu, I enjoy being surprised by new tastes and new textures and having to think about what I'm eating. As it opened just a couple of months ago, I would say it was a "wait a few months then come back" cause it wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good either.  I think it will become better with time.' Yep, I believe Cam pretty much summed it up.

So with no further ado (cause we know there's been enough ado here), here are the scores.

Food: 7.5
Service: 9.5

Although a tad pricey (damn you, wine!), it is a redo for sure. You know, perhaps with my birthday money or next Christmas :)

Café Lucci

A month or so ago, I was walking to work on a cold, rainy day and I was just, well, I was blah. That's the technical word of course. And then, out of no where, this kind looking older man hands me a coupon for a free hot chocolate at his new café (there's a new restaurant/café every flinging flanging week in Griffintown!) on William about a 2 minute walk from work. Hello! I obviously had to go and check it out, get my free hot chocolate, and get somethin' to eat along with it! But first, I had to work. So I decided to go the following day.

I was going to have to take it out and eat it at work because as I was ordering, I noticed I was aleady supposed to be at work. Ps, this never EVER happens. I am a very responsible employee. Plus, I got my boss' approval.The place itself is a bit dark... ok a lot dark. The kind of darkness I wouldn't want if I'd be studying in a café (and I saw some people doing it), the kind I'd want if, let's say, I'd have a migraine.

So I had the hot chocolate and the 'Nutty Goat' sandwich (ugh, I know, it's a horrible picture). The hot chocolate was great and hit that it's-minus-20-outside spot. Very creamy and smooth.

The sandwich didn't get to hit that many spots. It was so small that, well, it couldn't have! Ha. It looked like there was nothing in it. The goat cheese was good and the basil was awesome in there and very tasty and the tomato gave bursts of, well, tomato juice in my mouth. The bread was nice and crunchy and the honey gave it just the amount of sweetness I wanted. And obviously accompanied well with the cheese. The nuts were, wait, what nuts? Well they were nonexistent. I wanted that extra crunch and that extra somethin' somethin' but they were nowhere to be found, sadly.

And now, the score!

Food: 6.5

All in all, it was OK.... but the meal was largely saved by that hot chocolate. I felt a bit cheated and cetainly not full.

Buck 15

Buck 15 Espresso bar is this tiny little place on the north west corner of Notre-Dame and Atwater. I had checked it out a couple months back and had put it on the back burner. Well, 2 weeks ago, it was time!

The place is tiny. Tinier than most coffee shops. Tinier than my freaking closet. OK, I exaggerate. There's a table right in the middle with about 10 seats around it and two counters with high chairs making the place big enough for 16 regular sized people. Chill reggae music (wait, is reggae ever NOT chill) was playing and most people seemed to be studying for finals. There also seemed to be many regulars, saying hey to the waitress and the cook. There were a couple girls pretty much screaming out and I just wanted to say this to them: calm down.

Warning: they do not accept interac. Which, by the way, is really annoying. Come ooooon! Everyone accepts freakin' interac these days. Had to go across the street and take some money out. When I came back, the line had sort of disappeared which made me happy because that meant I was going to get my food THAT much faster! Or so I thought (oooooh the suspense!).

I started to order and the first two things on my list that I really REALLY wanted, they were out of. Are you seriously serious about this? Darn tootin! I ordered a hot chocolate and an 'Avo yo toast'.

The hot chocolate. Oh. My. Chocolate. God. They could have sold it to me for 10 bucks, it still would have been a good deal! It was creamy, chocolaty, HAZELNUTTY goodness. Right. In. My. Mouth. The hazelnut was a surprise and it made the drink that much better. It tasted so flinging flanging great. It wasn't as hot as I would have liked it to be so I'll only give it a 10. Hot, it could have won contests, medals, olyyyyyympics!

Avo yo toast. Avocado? Good. Egg? Gooood. Avocado AND egg on toast? Goooood! This was lovely. The bread was hot and tender and oh-so-multigrainy-tasty, the avocado was perfect and the dill, which y'all know I'm not usually a fan of, was actually pretty awesome. I would have appreciated a runny egg yolk though. The dukkah was a first for me but what a great discovery. It's basically a mix of herbs, nuts and spices. I will put dukkah on everything from now on. You know; bread, veggies, omelets, cereal. OK maybe not that last one. I'm just going cray cray for dukkah! 

Service was, what's the word I'm looking for... CRAPPY. I'm not even trying to be mean, it's just a fact. The regulars (and favourites) that arrived way after me got served way before me. When I asked the waitress where in the holy hell my food was, she kind of shrugged and said 'soon'. If I hadn't payed for my food in advance, I would've been out of there in a jiffy. So I waited and waited and waited some more. I was thinking to myself how long it could possibly take to make this dish. They must have parboiled eggs at the ready and then there's the spread and the toasting of the bread. I'd say 3 minutes tops? I waited, and I ain't exaggerating here, at least 30 minutes. THIRTY! For a freaking toast! Ridiculous! I also had to ask for some water. Y'all KNOW how I feel about this. Oh, you know.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5

Service: -2 No, but seriously, I give it a 5.

I really want to go back to eat whatever I didn't get to eat when I went. But I also don't want to wait half an hour for a toast. Decisions, decisions.

Le Doggy Café

There are two restaurants in the vicinity that accept dogs: the Hot Dog Café on the south shore and Le Doggy Café on the plateau. Well, since I refuse to step foot on the south shore except for an emergency (bomb threat, tsunami, perhaps an 8.2 magnitude earthquake) and that I went to school with the owner of Le Doggy Café, you guessed it, that's where I went last week with Val and her pooch, Lola.

Le Doggy Café sends kind of the wrong message from the outside. I mean, it looks rather... boring. If I hadn't known it was there, I would have walked right passed it. It actually looks quite lame (sorry Gab!). It's when you get inside that it gets better! Way better. Or as I like to say: whhhhaaayy. It actually is a huge space with high ceilings and is really darn cute! There are two little nooks that are kind of hidden and that are surrounded by little lights; you know, if you want to have a romantic dinner with your dog :) OR if your dog is on a date? There's a play area with some toys and a big bowl of water too. Treats are given out when dogs come in which is super cute! Oh and they partnered up with some dog adoption places to have 'adoption days' at the restaurant, which I find uuuuuber awesome! They also have a very active facebook page with lots of freaking cute dogs (https://www.facebook.com/LeDoggyCafe/?fref=ts)!

When we got there, we were alone and as luck would have it, the restaurant actually filled up within the next 10 minutes with lots of dogs, big and small (cute AND ugly in my opinion...hehehe). It was really cute seeing them run around, making dog friends (or, I guess in this case, we can just say 'friends'). Lola got so exhausted that after leaving, she slept in the car and crashed when we got to Val's house. I don't think she got up for at least a couple hours.

Before getting to the restaurant, we had walked up the Mont-Royal and I believed my toes were starting to get frostbite. Seriously. I was in dire need of something hot. Like right effin now. Luckily for me, they serve tea and other hot beverages so I had myself a nice chai latte. Oh yes!

This hit the spot. The foam was perfect and although the chai tasted a tad diluted, it was tasty and hot and warmed me up in 5.7 (that's right!) seconds. Mmmmm I could go for one of those right about now.

This resto has a vegetarian menu with some vegan and gluten-free options. Well, we just had to have ourselves the vegan mac n' cheese! What what! Brraaap brraaap! OK, imma gonna stop. Let's start with the salad: we could either have kale or spinach. Hello my fave kale, we'll have YOU! Pomegranates adorned the salad which made it that much different than the usual boring side salad. The kale was crunchy and fresh, the tomatoes added a bit of acidity to the mix and the pomegranates, a sweet side to it all. The avocado could have been a bit riper but hey, I'm in the business of cutting avocados, so I know they're difficult :) The vinaigrette was dill based. Ah, dill, my spice foe. If you ask me what herb I despise, I'd be quick to answer dill. But you know what, strangely, it was....not bad. It's a bold move to put a dill dressing on all your salads! Hum, maybe THAT's why she was the best student in my class. In any case, maybe there should be an alternative because dill is a bit like fennel or like black licorice; you either love it or hate it. 

And now, the macaroni. Well, it was just damn perfect. Creamy, cheesy. What else would a girl want? It was even still hot after 15 minutes. Now, THAT I like! There's nothing worse than a hot meal in a cold plate. Val thought the pasta was a smidge overcooked and after further consideration, I agreed. But again, a smidge.

The beet burger: beet patty with goat cheese, mayo and walnuts between two thin pieces of bread. All in all, this was good. I had never had a beet burger before! The goat cheese is obviously an...obvious choice when it comes to beet, but you know what, it's because they are perfect for each other. Just like Justin Bieber and Selena. Ooooor something. Forget I said anything. OK, there was whhhhhaaaaayyy too much mayo in there. It kind of took the I'm-eating-something-healthy side of it out. The beet patty was actually pretty damn great. It tasted like beet, looked like beet. Hey! It's a beet patty :) The bread was nicely toasted and felt lighter than an actual hamburger bun. The nuts were awesome in there, adding a textural element and lots of flavor. The beets on top were... unnecessary. And tasted way too much like vinegar. Oh and when one of dogs jumped up and almost took a bite out of my burger, I realized why we don't allow animals in restaurants. That dog was lucky he was cute :)

Service was good. Warm welcome. And when I thought 'hey we could do with some more water', she was right there. It was good, not special. I also found it a bit weird that when we were saying stuff about maaayyybe a dessert, she said something like 'oh not after the big lunch you had' or something. I was feeling more like 'hey that red velvet cake looks like it could go into my mouth'.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5
Service: 7.5 

I can totally see myself going back! Obviously to see my friend but also to see dem cute dogs :)

Sparrow

A couple weeks back, my friend Isa and I were looking for a new brunch place. You know the rest: we wanted somethin' hip, somethin' new, somethin' good. We chose Sparrow because it had all those qualities AND it wasn't far from my friend's place on Le Plateau. I also would like to mention that although I am fully bilingual, I'm more on the Loi 101's side when it comes to restaurants and shops' names. But you know what, let's face it, 'Le Moineau' would be a shitty name for a restaurant. 'Sparrow' is much prettier and magical (yes, I'm going for 'magical' here).

We headed there at around 10:15 am and lemme tell you that the brunch crowd apparently woke up way earlier than usual because it was full. Full, full, FULL. I remember a time when going out for brunch at 11 was still considered early. I mean I'm all for the early wake up time but I thought that was MY thing, not half of Montreal's population's thang.

Anyhoot, Sparrow is a bar. Prettier than most bars, it's a nice setting for brunch. A very popular brunch setting! It has high brass-covered ceilings, sparrows on the wooden walls, marble tabletops and a big arse bar you can eat at. Filled with 100 MILLION bottles. Well, it's a bar... duh. Nice catchy indie music was playing and although the place seemed loud, with the 800 people talking, we could still hear each other.

They have what I like to call an international menu (like at Le Bon Vivant): smoked meat, steak, eggs, Turkish plate, Moroccan dish, breakfast banh mi WHAT! I love it. I love eating where they don't only have eggs for breakfast/brunch. This menu was 1000 times more interesting to me than a lot of places. Which is pretty much mainly why I was attracted to it.

 

I had the breakfast banh mi. Duh. I mean, even if you know me a little bit, you just KNOW imma gonna have this. I was so damn excited it! As soon as I read the menu on my computer, at home, I knew. It was pretty much callin' out my name: Maaaaaariiiiiiie. OK, no, not like a ghost. I'm getting off track here! So this is what I got: a huge chunk of leafiness with three slices of radish and sesame seeds they called a salad. I'm sorry, this was NOT a salad. NO! Oh and I got a huge mofo of a bread with tiny bits of things inside. Seriously, this was nothing compared to the 'regular', 'normal' banh mi I usually buy. The only thing that was different was the egg and at least that was well done: runny but not too much, it acted kind of like a spread on the bread. The coriander was nice but I would have liked more and the pickled veggies were few and far between.The pork was quite tasty but sadly a tad dry. All in all, quite the early morning Vietnamese deception ( I AM aware that it was not technically Vietnamese).

Isa had the Turkish plate. Turned out to be about 15 times better than mine. Sigh. She gave it an 8 and said it was a fresh, delicious variety of thangs. I agree. I tasted most of it and it was just on par. The egg actually tasted like a farm egg, olives were nice but a tad too salty (I agreed but informed her that hey, olives are pretty much supposed to be salty) and a tad mushy (mmmya, you do NOT really want that in olives), feta was good but too salty yet again (there's a theme here) and the bread was perfect and moist. a great mix, if you will.

Mimosa. Perfect. One of the best I've had. Eva.

We HAD to have ourselves some donuts. What? Giving in to a guilty pleasure now and then is fine. Right? RIGHT? These were nutella donuts. Yes AND yes. The time we waited for them: NO! I seriously think we waited a good 25 minutes. TWENTY-FIVE. For three tiny bits of donuts. Come on! I'm sure our waitress forgot to punch it in. Grrr. Well, they were effin delicious. Oh GOD. It was very close to orgasmic. They absolutely saved the day for me. Hot, doughy, smushy, yummy, lemony, nutella-y goodness. Right. In. My. Mouth.

Service was.... meh. Basically, we were told we had to wait 20 minutes but got seated at the bar 5 minutes later (yay!) and then relocated to an actual table because the bar was too high for tiny me (I say it was an all-together way too high bar!). That part was good. And then our waitress came to see us and as soon as she did, I knew I was not going to love her. Or like her. Throughout our meal, it just seemed like she didn't give two shits about us. She was just downright unfriendly. She didn't ask us how our food was, and she was plain rude half the time. The bus girl was way nicer, at least flashing a couple smiles here and there.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5 Donuts clearly saved the day
Service: 6 And we are being nice here

I have many friends that love this bar and go there in the evening to have drinks. I would like to go back and try more on their menu but I'm certainly not going to order the banh me again and imma gonna steer clear of that waitress.

Rustique

Rustique is located in St-Henri, about a 6.545 minute bike ride from my place. Now, tell me why I didn't try this bakery before? Mmmya, I don't know either. 

This place is so darn tootin' cute: wooden panels, very small with about 10 seats, upbeat music, staff friendly like there's no tomorrow. Oh and please notice the light fixtures: a bowl and a whisk? Come ooooon! Cuteness overload much? This was going to be our dessert after eating at Tejano BBQ just a few blocks down. Basically, we were continuing the 'pigging out' portion of our day.

This was to be shared with Lea. No no... not 4 or 3 people. Only 2. Cause we be pigs. Yep! Obviously, we wanted it all. But let's face it, our stomachs were not equipped for a buffet of yummy desert so we went for the feast instead (not sure that really makes sense but I'm rollin' with it).

Bottom right: spicy chocolate itsi bitsi pie with marshmallow top. The crust was fantasticaaaaaal and crunchy and chocolaty and all that goodness. The chocolate was spicy enough to do 'that thing' on my tongue, which I always love when it comes to chocolate (I don't know how many times I've eaten that yummy Lindt chocolate bar with the chili pepper). The marshmallow part of it was, well, sticky! Try cutting THAT in half! It was a tug of war business between Lea and I. She won. I still had some but although it tasted just like it should (not too sweet), it remained way too sticky for me and my brittle teeth. 

Bottom left: pumpkin pie. Hello! It was great as a whole with a flaky, buttery crust that was just to die for but it sadly didn't taste much like pumpkin. I like it when my pumpkin stuff tastes like, well, pumpkin. Duh.

Top right: basically, a smore dessert. Ex-cuuuuuse me? Yes, you heard that right. Turned out to be a bit disappointing :/ The marshmallow took up about 8000 units of flavor buds. Wait, that sentence made no sense. Again, I'm rollin' with it. The marshmallow part of it was just too much, basically. Too thick and, again, too sticky (YES, I know it's supposed to be sticky). The chocolate part was awesomeballs but there was just not enough of it! I wanted it in reverse; more chocolate, less guimauve!

Top left: choco-nuts-coconut heaven allmighty in all heavens dessert. Yes, that much. Holy sh*t that was great. It was like dying and going straight to chocolate paradise. Every last bite of it was good, and when we did get to the last one, I believe there was a tear in my eye. OK, not really, but you get the point. The chocolate was dark and thick and stuck to your teeth like it just wanted to stay there forever (and I felt the same way). The nuts added a crunch, obviously, but blended in well with the smooth yumminess of it all, the coconut was present without being overwhelming, and that crust was just asking to be devoured. As you can see, I can get pretty intense when it comes to dessert! Haha!

Service was great: it felt like all of them owned the place. I've rarely heard of 8 people owning the same bakery. They were all smiles, gave us water, were very helpful when we asked what we should have (everything!!!!) and just plain nice.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8.5
Service: 9.5

I'm thinking of going back about 10 biiiiiiilliiiiiioooon triiiiiillion times. Good?

Tejano BBQ

Aight, so there's about 18 new Mexican restaurants in St-Henri. OK, no, that's a lie. I believe there are 3. Still. One of my main goals in life right now is to go to all of them. So last week, I decided I should start with the furthest one (and slowly make my way up!). 

Tejano BBQ Burrito is Black Strap BBQ's baby. Basically, all the meat comes from Black Strap, which, let's say it, is pretty darn tootin' awesome. It is also quite tiny, even smaller than the latter, with about 8 seats on two counters. EIGHT. I think they've exaggerated there. We, as a group, we're taking up more than half the restaurant.

Anyhoot, the premise of this micro restaurant is that you get there, you order and you get the f*ck out! Ha, I kid, I kid. No. There's a counter kinda cafeteria (not to say Subway---cringe) style right in front of you when you enter. Basically, you choose out of a salad, a burrito or a large burrito. Thank my lucky ass stars I had the 'small' burrito. It was larger than my head, man! You choose what you want as a base (black beans, fried beans, Spanish rice), you choose yo meat (smoked chicken, chorizo spiced pulled pork, cumin spiced beef), and then you choose out of 200 veggie type thangs (guacamole is a dollar extra but well worth it, pico de gallo, radishes, marinated onions, hot peppers, green peppers, cheddar, lettuce, corn, etc...)

I had the smaller burrito (which, lets face it, was on the larger side of things) with beans and rice as a base, with Pico di gallo, corn, onions, peppers, guacamole and some lime on top (you NEED the lime on top!). All o' this for 10 bucks. Mmmmya, I think it's safe to say it's a good deal. I had the pulled pork oooof course.

Mmmkay, so the pork was unfortunately a tad dry, or a bit more than a tad. The guacamole was well worth the extra dollar: smooth and tasty... yum! The rice was really tasty and well seasoned but the beans were a bit on the harder side of things. Meh. The onions were oh-so-good, but you know me and onions :) The lime obviously did it's job and brought out all the flavors which was wonderful. I could have eaten it without the corn though and in the end that burrito was way too big, really. And totally falling apart. All over. Everywhere. After this tragedy happened, I was just eating the ingredients off of the bread.

Two of my friends that came along had different things off of the menu: Lea had the bowl and Sabster had the veggie burrito. Lea was REALLY pleased with her chicken (I tasted it; much juicier than my pork) and rest of bowl but Sabster was even less pleased than me about her veggie burrito. She found that there weren't enough veggie options to put in there. 

Service was at the counter. Kinda like Subway. Damn it, why do I always have to go back to Subway. Anyway, they were really nice, explained our options, told us what they preferred and asked how hungry we were and suggested either the burrito, the bowl or the huge mother freakin' burrito. All in all, very courteous and knowledgeable.

And now, the scores!

Food: an average of 7

Service: 8.5

I think I'll try the other Mexicano restaurants before I go to this one again but it's not totally off my list :) 

Le Bon Vivant

Val and I set out to have brunch a couple weeks back. This turned out to be QUITE the adventure, seeing as she had her dog with her and we wanted to find a terrasse to eat on. Turns out, not that many terrasses open for brunch. Where you can tie up your dog. Or where it's easy to park. Or on the island.

Anyhoot, we finally just dropped off Lola at home after pretty much driving around the city and went to a restaurant very close to our apartments: Le Bon Vivant. I'd been meaning to go there since it opened some months ago. Well, it was time.

It was surprisingly empty-ish when we got there at 10h30---prime brunch time---or is that later? I'm lost because I wake up uber early on weekends to take full advantage of my day. What? I'm old. We were very warmly welcomed by the waiter with a 100 Watt smile (seriously, it was blinding, almost). We were seated right away at the open window and felt like we were pretty much on the sidewalk. People walking by were literally brushing up against us. OK not really. Oldies were playing and then some great classics from the 90's. Basically, music that makes me want to say yay!

We were oh-so-hungry by then so we ordered... drinks! Morning drinks are almost AS good as evening drinks, you know.

I had the bacon caesar because, well, there's... well... there's the bacon and well, the bacon! Oh and the caesar part. The bacon was crunchy, perfect goodness. Yes, yes, YES! The rest... was so disappointing I felt like returning it (but Val gave me dem eyes) and telling them that tomato juice a caesar does not make. Seriously, it was thick, tomato-y, and straight up unpleasant. Val's mimosa looked about 100% better at that point. I ended up not even finishing my drink. ME!

Yes. Oh, AND yes! This was approximately 800% better than the dreaded drink. Val and I shared huevos rancheros and the 'bene' BLT. I mean, come on, look how amazing those dishes look!!! Damn amazing I tells ya! Lets start with the huevos:  fresh corn right off the cob (like, seriously, 2 minutes prior), yummy juicy sausage ,and perfect potatoes that were just a bit spicy (I loves me some spice). The guacamole was as soft as a baby's butt and the bean puree too. Rrrrrrrr, that's me drooling just thinking about it. The only thing was that the eggs were a tad dry. That's seriously the only damn bad thing I could find :) And also, please note how nice the presentation is. A+

The BLT. First off, let me just say that when I saw 'green salad' on the menu, I thought fosho I was gonna have some God forsaken mesclun on my plate. Would you believe that it wasn't? It was a mix, yes, but a good one. F*ck mesclun! Yes, that's how much I hate it. Alright so first off, the open face sandwich was on brioche bread. So already there, that's like 100 points! So soft and yummy. The mayo was nice and tangy, the egg was nice and thick and runny, the bacon was 'fou raide' as Val described it. And everything was hot. Which, as you and I know, is a must. The only thing I could possibly find that was wrong was that it was a bit too salty and the egg could have been cooked 10 seconds less.

Service started off awesome and got a bit less awesome but remained good. Water was ALMOST always in our glasses and service was quick in general.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8.5
Service: 7.5

This restaurant has such a variety of choices (from kimchi to steak to fish n' chips) that I'm just gonna have to go back 8 times. Yes, 8.

Café Cantina

A couple weeks back, Val and I ate breakfast at Café Bloom. One of its neighbours is Café Cantina. So we obviously had to eat a late afternoon snack there. Duh. Two restaurants in one day? I say bring it!

This is another one of those places in a very bad spot: end of rue Centre, close to the tracks. I mean come on. Who in the holy hell goes there? Absolutely butt f*ck no one. Which is why it closes at 4 (YES, 4!) on weekdays! I don't even know how they make their money. I just don't.

Amazing thing for them is that they were voted last year as one of the best Mexican restos in MTL to warm up your [cold as hell] winter! (http://notable.ca/The-7-Best-Mexican-Restaurants-in-Montreal-to-Heat-Up-Your-Winter/).

The place itself is quite small, with about 20 seats on the ground floor and perhaps another 20 a couple steps higher.We were the only ones in there at 5 PM and we got a warm welcome but it was eerily quiet in there! Kinda good, kinda weird. We weren't looking for a full meal so we decided to share some guacamole (guac and I: a love story) and some quesadillas.

Simple, yet, delicioso! Wait a second, that ain't spanish at all! The guacamole was nice and soft and oh-so-DAMN-yummy. Oh and very limy-lemony, which is mucho importanto (here I go again!). The only thing that I would have added is a tad more salt. That's it. There was a lovely salsa roja (I got it!!! Spanish, finally!) that was quite spicy but never enough for me. Val kinda choked on the spiciness but I say BRING IT ON. These were devoured by us with homemade tortillas. Hello.

Cheesy quesadillas! This was a nice surprise. Very fresh, very tasty. The quesadillas were hot, crunchy and cheesy, but not too much... You know when you burn yourself because of an overload of melting cheese? Ya, it wasn't the case here. We had some salsa, guacamole and sour cream to put on top and basically bring us right smack to Mexicano heaven! Just the contrast of the cold sour cream and the hot cheese was awesome. We also had a little coarse coleslaw with, hold on to your hats, wait for it, cumin in it! Now THAT was a nice surprise! It brought Val aaaaall the way back to Morocco apparently. Who knew a Mexican dish could do that?

Service was good. Nothin' special. Our waitress was very quiet but very nice. Our food was there in 2.5 seconds. She answered all our questions and knew her shiz.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8.5
Service: 7.5

I'm fosho going back... just have to find a day that I'm not working passed FOUR! Sheesh.